My friend who lives farthest away is my long-time Japanese pen pal, Asako. I've known her since I was in the seventh grade, so it's been 27 years this year. That seems like a really long time! We met because my 7th grade English teacher, Ms. Burge, made us get pen pals as part of English class, because she wanted us to learn how to write letters properly. We all got our pen pals from the Japanese Pen Pal League, and then we got a card from the League stating that if we ever needed to find the pen pal again, we could just write them and give them the code number on the card. I still have not only my first letter from her but the League's card as well.

She has been to the US many times, and she has visited my family three times, the last time when she came to my wedding in 2005. She lived in Boston for three years, and she worked at the Harvard Brigham and Women's Hospital as a researcher. She is a medical doctor and also has her PhD, and she does research on rheumatism and other diseases.

So, living that far away, it has been difficult to keep in touch at times. The internet and email have helped, but we aren't as good about writing as we were when we were both still in high school. She's my age, and her birthday is coming up soon.

That's my farthest away and one of my longest-term friends on the planet!